"There Are Yankees in Harpers Ferry."

Saturday, September 13, 1862,

On Thursday instant, we crossed the Potomac and returned to Virginia. We crossed near Williamsport, several miles above White's Ford which is where we left Virginia and entered Maryland. We are leaving Maryland not much worse for our visitation. The shelves in the shops were depleted of goods but I suspect they were re-plenished soon enough after we left. They do have some very good cheese up there. Their hams are good but I prefer those in Virginia.

On Friday, we came to Martinsburg where we were treated as both conquering heroes and liberators. There had been a Yankee garrison here and we hoped to engage them but they evacuated the town before we arrived. We were looking forward to visiting the shops again as we did in Frederick but things are different here.

No one would take our money. We could buy nothing but could take anything we liked. As we marched into town there were buckets of water placed along the way to slake our thirst. I am rather sure that some of those tin buckets contained something stronger than water. The girls and a good number of the women tossed flowers. The boys "marched" along side of us, trying to look martial. It is apple season here and one of the merchants rolled out a barrel of apples and we helped ourselves as we marched by.

We did not suffer to stay long. Jackson has seen fit to order us back on the road. There are Yankees in Harpers ferry. They are between us and home. We will move them.